When homeowners Shawi and Jam decided to build a house, they didn’t buy coffee table books on design. Neither did they hire an architect (at first). What they did was to go online and log on to Pinterest.

“This is mostly my wife’s design, which she developed mainly using pegs from Pinterest,” says Jam, gesturing at his three-level, four-bedroom home. “She contributed eighty percent of the design. Our contractor contributed ten percent, and I put in the last ten.” They hired an architect later on to plot everything to scale and sign the necessary documents. In three months, the couple and their contractor had the design finalized.

Chicago’s signature brownstone buildings also provided Shawi and Jam the inspiration for their home. “The major inspiration that helped us come up with the design of the house is our condo in Chicago, where we lived for eight years,” says Shawi. “It had brick interior walls, which we love. That’s why we have brick feature walls in our living room and den here.”

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Several elements give the illusion of space in the couple’s home: glass accordion doors, wide windows, the black-and-white interiors, and an open-plan layout on the ground floor. The accordion doors leading to the balcony that spans the living and dining areas was one of Shawi’s design non-negotiables. “Shawi already knew where she wanted those doors. If you open them, it’s like the porch becomes an extension of the living and dining areas,” says Jam

There really is something to be said about homeowners being hands-on with the construction of their home. But for a couple to come up with their own design—that’s worth a million pins on Pinterest.